WPE Senior Officer

Job Description

BACKGROUND:

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity, and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The Ukraine crisis could become the worst humanitarian crisis Europe has seen in decades. More than 5.3 million people have fled across borders to seek safety in the 1st month since the escalation of conflict in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and over 6.5 million people are reported to be displaced. Reports indicate almost all arrivals in Poland are women and children, including those that are unaccompanied and separated, as well as older persons.

Between February 7-23, 2022, an IRC team undertook a scoping mission covering Poland and Ukraine to better understand the context, humanitarian and civil society landscape, and anticipated service gaps in the event of an escalation of conflict in Ukraine and consequent displacement into neighboring Poland. As of February 24th, the IRC has pivoted to emergency response, and has identified partner agencies in Ukraine and Poland to facilitate immediate assistance that can be used where it is most needed. Simultaneously, the IRC has established operations across Ukraine and Poland offering a robust humanitarian response to complement partner response services either in breadth or scale.

Job Overview/Summary:

The WPE Senior Officer will work with implementing partners to ensure that activities are provided following IRC – WPE standards including policies and strategies. She will oversee partner’s implementation of safe and appropriate GBV response and prevention services and interventions to reduce risks faced by women and girls. The WPE Senior Officer will be responsible for providing technical guidance, trainings & support to the local implementing partners staff including case workers and mobilizers.

Key Working Relationships

· Position Reports to: WPE Manager, Poland

· Position directly supervises: TBD

· Internal collaborations within IRC: Child Protection (CP) Senior Officer; Education Senior Officer, Protection Partnerships & Capacity Building Team; Economic Recovery and Development (ERD) Team

· External collaborations to IRC: GBV prevention and response actors, organizations, and agencies

Major Responsibilities:

· Reinforce adherence to the GBV guiding principles throughout all WPE activities

· Support the development of structured WGCC activities for women and adolescent girls – using the Emotional Support Group/Women Rise, Girl Shine and SAFE curricula, as well as other relevant IRC WPE safe space material.

· Ensure timely assistance and referrals are provided to GBV survivors from implementing partners with adherence with GBV guiding principles, using up-to-date service mapping tool and referral pathways.

· Training of referrals service providers on referral pathways and appropriate referrals

· Assess implementation progress and identify technical quality issues or other concerns, to be flagged to the WPE Manager, and propose solutions

· Seek technical guidance and support from the WPE Manager on activity development, implementation, and available resources

· Identify material needs for the WGSS (activities material, space rehabilitation, etc.), and work with WPE Manager to make the necessary procurements, in consideration of budget limits

· Prepare and maintain/update detailed work plan(s) that support and achieve activities.

· Provide direct support and ongoing mentoring to implementing partners as they provide services to women and girl survivors of violence. This will include assessment of client needs; basic, crisis counseling (and in some contexts further individual counseling); development of action plans with clients; support to clients in pursuing services and support and safe housing

· Provide direct support and ongoing mentoring to implementing partners on SRHR

· Develop and provide support to implement a series of age-appropriate and specialized group emotional services to be provided to vulnerable women and girls, with an emphasis on meeting the needs of survivors.

· Ensure partners are following international guidelines when implementing programmes funded by IRC

· Monitor and provide guidance for age appropriate and relevant psychosocial activities for women and adolescent girls.

· Conduct stakeholder analysis: continually review existing actor mapping with a view to establish/strengthen partnerships focused on the delivery of GBV response and prevention service

· Based on emerging needs in Poland, and along the WPE Manager, work with potential partners/partners to design quality and responsive GBV response and prevention interventions, specifically:

· Collaborating with partners in the design and implementation of GBV services, based on needs and context

· In collaboration with the WPE Manager, develop work plans to achieve targets and follow up on the implementation

· In collaboration with the Protection and Partnerships teams and implementing partners, and along the WPE Manager, identify the most vulnerable locations to implement the program activities.

· Facilitating, co-designing training sessions with partners, other sectors, and other relevant stakeholders

· Coordinate with other actors and implementing partners when developing safe spaces individual strategies

· In collaboration with other protection streams and other sectors, ensuring complementary and aligned interventions, through partnerships and direct implementation

· Support Programmes (through direct implementation and support partners),

· Technical support, including preparation and facilitation of trainings, to partners and staff (as needed and requested). Training content may include but is not limited to group psychosocial support interventions, women and girls’ safe spaces, GBV case management, referrals, etc.

· Monitoring of work plan

· Continually identifying strategic actors to strengthen GBV response and prevention

· Conduct program monitoring with a view to support oversight of quality

· Deliver training sessions on GBV topics and programs

· Integrate technical capacity sharing approaches into partnerships

Other Duties

· Ensure all activities are carried out in accordance with IRC Operational policies.

· Other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs.

Requirements

· Language: English required; Polish and/or Ukrainian a significant advantage

· Bachelor of Arts or Science in Social Work, Gender, Human Rights, Social Science, Public Health, Humanities or other related fields, desirable

· Demonstrated understanding of and ability to maintain confidentiality and respect for clients

· Knowledge and experience with community outreach and mobilization

· Counseling or case management experience desirable

· Experience in working in refugee camps or other emergency programming settings

· Clear understanding of, and interest in, violence against women and girls, the well-being of women and girls, supporting their healing after the experience of violence, human rights, and gender

· Good understanding and/or experience in human trafficking trends and practices in the Central and Easter European a significant advantage

· Excellent communication skills

· Demonstrated understanding of and ability to maintain confidentiality and respect for clients/beneficiaries

· Positive and professional attitude, including ability to lead and work well in a team setting

· High degree of flexibility and strong ability to organize work, meet deadlines, maintain composure, prioritize work under pressure, coordinate multiple tasks and maintain attention to details

· Computer literate, including Microsoft Word and Excel

· This position will be based in Warsaw, with occasional travel to Rzeszow, Lublin and other locations as necessary. As this is a fluid and rapidly changing context, the location of this position and length of assignment may change based on the needs of the programme.

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The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

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